The Cholesterol Campaign and Its Misleading Dietary Advices (Lecture)

Uffe Ravnskov, M.D., Ph.D., is a Danish independent researcher, specialist in internal medicine and nephrology, and a former private medical practitioner in Sweden. He is the creator and spokesman of THINCS, The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics, an organization that includes more than 100 researchers and other university graduates from all over the world. Ravnskov is also a CONEM member. On January 24, 2013, he gave this lecture about the cholesterol campaign and its misleading dietary advices at a nutritional conference in Oslo (Kostholdskonferansen).

A major, worldwide health problem today is obesity and type 2 diabetes. Since long the general view has been that the cause is lack of exercise and intake of too much saturated fat (SF). However, the epidemics of obesity and diabetes began in the early eighties, shortly after the introduction of the “Dietary guidelines for Americans” according to which a reduction of SF and an increase of carbohydrates in the diet was seen as the road to eternal health. Since then SF intake has declined and carbohydrate intake has increased in most countries.

Recently several health authorities have realised that the vilification of SF was a mistake and many trials have shown that doing the opposite may solve the problem. Instead we are now advised to exchange SF with polyunsaturated fat (PUFA) without specification. If followed, this advice will result in a further increased intake of Ω-6 rich plant oils and margarines, because these are the dominating PUFA-containing foodstuffs on the market.

It is obviously of benefit for the plant oil and the margarine manufacturers, but not for human health because a high ratio Ω-6/Ω-3 PUFA in the diet is associated with many serious health problems.